History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

means by which this necessary object may be best attained. And until it shall be accomplished, until
the time shall come when we can point without a blush to the language held in the Declaration of
Independence, every friend of humanity will seek to lighten the galling chain of slavery, and better,
to the utmost of his power, the wretched condition of the slave." Citizens of the United States had
occasion, in later years, to recall these utterances when the speaker sat on the supreme bench of the
nation. The jury, after a few minutes' retirement, pronounces a verdict of "not guilty." Gruber,
hearing that the "trial" was to be published in a pamphlet, addressed a letter to its editor for
publication with it, arguing the subject bravely, and at considerable length. "Some," he wrote, "have
been in hopes that I have learned a useful lesson in my trial; but whatever I have learned, I can assure
you I have not yet learned to call good evil, or evil good. I hope while I keep my senses I shall
consider involuntary perpetual slavery miserable injustice, a system of robbery and theft. I hope I
never shall rank men, women, and children with horses and cows and property, and countenance or
justify such sales and merchandise. May our merciful God save us from this sin and reproach, and
let every honest man say amen." This was well said in the circumstances, but it was nothing
extraordinary for a Methodist preacher of that day to say it. He went forthwith to the session of his
Conference at Alexandria, D. C., and was appointed for the ensuing year to Frederick Circuit, named
after, and comprehending, the town in which he had been tried.
Freeborn Garrettson labored strenuously in all this period in the middle states, mostly on the
Hudson, in stations from New York city to Rhinebeck, but much of the time as Conference
missionary, an appointment which allowed him to circulate at large among the Churches. His
venerable character, as a founder of the denomination, made him everywhere welcome, and his
power and unction as a preacher revivified the societies generally. During some of these years he
again commanded the large New York District, leading a host of the ablest men of the northern
ministry. Toward the close of the period he was among the supernumeraries, but with hardly
diminished labors.
Thomas Ware, worn by protracted labors in the hardest fields of the Church, continued to travel
down to 1809, part of the time in New Jersey District, (comprehending the whole state,) and part in
Philadelphia, where his health failed, and compelled him to retire till 1811, when he was again at
work at Lancaster, till the General Conference of 1812 appointed him to the Book Concern, where,
during four years, he did valuable service for the publishing interests of the Church. From 1816 to
1825 he was again abroad as an itinerant, but in the latter year was compelled by age to retreat into
the "ineffective ranks," after forty years of service in almost all parts of the country accessible in his
times.
Marvin Richardson, born. In Stephentown, N. Y., 1789, was awakened at the old Sands Street
Church, Brooklyn, in 1805, and, in the next year, converted at a camp-meeting held at Tuckahoe,
Westchester County. William Thatcher presided over this gathering, and Asbury and a host of
preachers were present. It was an extraordinary occasion. Asbury said that it exceeded any
camp-meeting he had ever attended. "From it," writes Richardson, "revivals spread east, west, north,
and south; the Spirit of the Lord was poured out upon the city of New York in an unusual manner.
Under the faithful labors of Aaron Hunt, Trueman Bishop, Seth Crowell, Freeborn Garrettson, and
John Wilson, many were led to Christ, and among the number, to my great joy, our whole family,
consisting of father, mother, three brothers, and three sisters, found peace with God, and connected